Originally published on the CGS blog on February 25, 2014.
Ben Ferencz is an inspiration to many members and supporters of GlobalSolutions.org, world federalists and human rights advocates worldwide. For those unfamiliar with Ben, he was the youngest member of the Nuremberg legal team in 1945 which prosecuted the Nazi leadership.
Like many young men and women in the U.S. armed forces today, he had enlisted as a soldier and served in Europe where he witnessed terrible atrocities being carried out as part of the Holocaust. As the Allies realized the scope of the horrors being committed, a war crimes team was set up. With his law studies background, Ben was assigned to this team, visiting the concentration camps afte their liberation, interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence of war crimes. Following his discharge from the U.S. Army, he was recruited to join the team at Nuremberg and was assigned as the chief prosecutor for the Einsatzgruppen trial, the ninth of the twelve Nuremberg cases carried out by the Allies.
Sixty-nine years later, at the age of 94, he remains a agile and vocal advocate for the robust prosecution of war criminals and a strong proponent for the International Criminal Court. In September 2013, he spoke with NPR’s Rachel Martin on the possibility of the United States referring Syrian President Assad to the International Criminal Court through the UN Security Council.
“[T]he United States has been opposed, unfortunately … to using that court because we value our sovereignty and we want to decide for ourselves when we go to war and when we don’t. A very, very dangerous practice, as we’re now discovering.”
Ben’s passion for justice and law has motivated generations of activists, lawyers and human rights supporters. His commitment to replacing the “law of force” with the “force of law” has contributed to profound changes and new institutions to protect our lives, liberties and sense of security. In a new short video released this weekend, Ben shares his thoughts on three fundamental requirements for creating a more humane and peaceful world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ3E7V8q3G8
On Ben’s website, www.benferencz.org, he shares a wealth of materials — documents and photos from Nuremberg, lectures from his time at Pace University, and many other videos, articles and media — free for human rights and justice advocates to use at will. He also shares his views on internationa justice developments and world affairs regularly via Twitter at @BenFerencz.
Ben continues to inspire many. As we begin to recognize we are part of one small planet and one small community, we have much to still do if we are at realize the vision and tools that Ben describes.
I joined GlobalSolutions.org’s predecessor organization because of practical visionaries like Ben after reading his short, friendly (and very non-legalistic) book Planethood. I have heard many others since cite the same work as their inspiration for joining Globalsolutions.org and becoming active in human rights or global goverance advocacy. If you’d like to join also, here’s how to do so.
